Tips: How to Swap out Your Broken iPhone at an Apple Store

Bought your phone at an Apple store and now it is not working correctly? Follow these easy tips to make the process as painless as possible.

1. Do a Restore before you go. If you do not, they will send you home and have you do one or make you do it in the store. Either way, you will not go home with another iPhone unless you do this, so you might as well do it before you go in the store and see if this fixes your problem(s). (Allow for enough time post-Restore to verify that your problem is/is not resolved.)

2. It is a good idea to book an appointment with a Genius as the Apple stores are typically backed up for awhile with problems right now and may not be available when you show up (or for the next few days for that matter). You can do this online at Apple.com

3. You must bring your original box in order for you to receive your new iPhone. They need to scan the info on the bar codes on the back. (You can bring your accessories too but it doesn't matter.. if you don't bring your accessories, they will just remove the new ones out of the box of your new iPhone and put them in the old box). So obviously... NEVER THROW OUT YOUR BOX! (At least for a year to cover warranty).

4. If you have a FAN discount or some other business discount, you must remove it or Apple will not be able to help you. If you choose not to, you will have to deal with AT&T. (For example, as soon as I received my original iPhone a couple of weeks ago I went home and signed up for a FAN discount through my college email address. Now Apple is unable to help me. I asked the guy at Apple, "Can I call AT&T and have the FAN discount removed... then call back and have it put back on?" He said, "We are not supposed to suggest this." I said, "I suggested it." He laughed and brought me a store iPhone to call 611 and have it removed. Then he was able to activate my new iPhone.)

Just found out why they are not supposed to suggest this. I just entered my email address to have the FAN discount re-added and the website states that this email address has already tried to use a FAN discount. I called the 1866 CINGULAR number and they stated they cannot add it on right now but will be following up by calling me back on Monday at a certain time to make sure everything is correct. Hmmm. Will update Monday with my results.

Hope this thread helps someone so they have less hoops to jump through.

Actually, you don't have to bring your box. They can pull up your receipt if you give them the credit card number that you used to pay for the phone. I returned 3 phones and all 3 times I did not bring my box and they had no problems swapping them out. Everything was done in under 15 mins.

Actually, you don't have to bring your box. They can pull up your receipt if you give them the credit card number that you used to pay for the phone. I returned 3 phones and all 3 times I did not bring my box and they had no problems swapping them out. Everything was done in under 15 mins.

This is correct. No box is needed. I've swapped out a few phones when I first got the original iPhone. Never needed the original box.

My Apple store takes a BOX OR NO PHONE stance. Happened to three people while I was there the first day and two today. Must vary by store??? Still.... keep the box just in case.

Actually, in retrospect, the guy said they only save about three phones per day for exchange. (They are brand new phones sealed). Maybe when they have too many people who want them, they make up this excuse so that you have to come back the next day and aren't all pissed off as it is YOUR fault you did not bring your box. Who knows.

ETA: They could not pull up my receipt either. I had to hop on my Yahoo account and print it from their iMac. Maybe I go to the Mac 1.0 store....

Also, when you swap out your iPhone it puts you back into a 2 year contract from that date. The guy at Apple mentioned he thought this would happen. Just checked online and it is true. Not sure if I am going to call AT&T and have it changed. Prolly will just so it doesn't mess up any upgrades in the future. (Or canceling AT&T all together in the future if AT&T loses its exclusive contract with Apple... hmmm.)

I only wanna exchange it cuz i have a dead pixel and maybe some personal abuse ive done to the phone.

Any info plz

Not sure you can exchange a phone with AT&T. When I did Direct Fulfillment (which I eventually canceled because I found a phone at an Apple Store) the receipt said that all warranty issues/claims/etc. would be handled by Apple. I would contact AT&T to be sure though.

Not sure you can exchange a phone with AT&T. When I did Direct Fulfillment (which I eventually canceled because I found a phone at an Apple Store) the receipt said that all warranty issues/claims/etc. would be handled by Apple. I would contact AT&T to be sure though.

Okay i went to my AT&T store today, the lady was awfully rude. But yes, in order to exchange your iphone, call 1-800-my-iphone i believe. And somehow work a deal with them and you can exchange it. But AT&T is not responsible for exchanging iPhones.

She did say that, if you already have an iPhone, and wanted another. You would have to pay the restocking price 10% of the phone, plus the original price of the new phone.

This part, i actually believe is total bull.

I guess I'm stuck with my 1 dead pixel for a while and a few scratches on the back

My experience swapping out for a new iPhone was a bit different. In my case they did the swap because the battery was bad. I took my phone in and they swapped it out with one that was in a small white box, not a retail package. I didn't need to have my original box and they didn't ask me to do a restore first. The Genius swapped my SIM into the new phone (which had no SIM) and plugged it into a MacBook Pro to activate it in iTunes. She gave me some time to swap my screen protector over to the new phone and even let me borrow a microfiber cloth to wipe the new phone's screen down before applying it. The whole thing didn't take too long, maybe 10 min. start to finish.

My experience swapping out for a new iPhone was a bit different. In my case they did the swap because the battery was bad.

Was this for a 3G...the white box phones are usually refurbs so it would be odd this early to have refurbs in the stores. Also just out of curiousity what made you suspect a bad battery...how bad was it I guess is what I'm asking...I'm debating whether to try and swap mine out b/c of battery life but my assumption is its just the nature of the 3G beast to eat the battery.

Once the phone has been on the market for about 90 days, they'll start having refurbs to swap out, and it'll be easier to get another phone if the one you've got has gone all hinky on you.

This said, I've had better luck with my refurbs than my original first gen phone. In fact, the last one I got, I swear if it was refurbed, they like, made it bionic or some such.

Ya'll take care of your phones... geez people... you have a phone for less than 2 weeks and already it's trashed? Is this how you treat all your stuff? If so, I'm glad you're not my neighbors, over wanting to borrow my power tools or some junk.

Was this for a 3G...the white box phones are usually refurbs so it would be odd this early to have refurbs in the stores. Also just out of curiousity what made you suspect a bad battery...how bad was it I guess is what I'm asking...I'm debating whether to try and swap mine out b/c of battery life but my assumption is its just the nature of the 3G beast to eat the battery.

Yes, this was for my iPhone 3G. My battery life was terrible from the start. I wasn't getting more than 2-3 hours of use out of it when using it normally. I tried using only the phone, email and Safari for a day and it lasted almost 8 hours. They said that was well below its expected battery life so they told me to bring it in. Lo and behold, the night before I was to bring it in the battery started acting really weird. I was trying to drain it completely to do a complete overnight charge with it turned off but after 3 hours of heavy use it still claimed to have a full charge. Then 30 minutes later after taking a rest it suddenly was asking to be plugged in. I was in the middle of a movie so I didn't plug it in right away. At the end of the movie it suddenly was claiming to have a full battery again. I went and plugged it in and it gave me a full battery meter and a "plug" over the battery for about 30 seconds and then it dropped into "plug me in" mode again even though it was plugged in. Obviously the battery was completely dying.

When she pulled out the little white box I was a little disappointed because I figured that was a refurb, but the phone looks brand new and it doesn't have scratches in the glass and banged up corners like my original one did so I'm not complaining.

i've been reading several threads about bugs and other iphone 3g issues, and was wondering what the battery life usually is. i have a treo 750 right now and have ordered an iphone, but i'm honestly quite nervous about it after reading everyone's complaints.

i've been reading several threads about bugs and other iphone 3g issues, and was wondering what the battery life usually is. i have a treo 750 right now and have ordered an iphone, but i'm honestly quite nervous about it after reading everyone's complaints.

Honestly the battery life is not bad compared to other 3g WM phones. But coming from a regular old cell phone like a razor or something simple then you may be disappointed. Here is a thread to check out.

Honestly... I do not have a problem with battery life if I use the iPhone for its intended purpose.... phone calls and email. BUT as soon as I bust out playing Bejeweled2 for an hour or FireWord or Reversi or whatever else I have on my phone, that is when battery life drops QUICK. Now when I play games at home I plug it in while playing (so if I have to leave my house quickly/unexpectedly I am charged up) and I also have a car charger if I play when I am out I can charge it up on the ride to and from.

I am having one shipped to the Apple store tomorrow. I let him know I work for AT&T and I did all the possible troubleshooting steps he was going to try... Hard Cyeles, a crap load of restores that take forever with my 35 apps, sim swaps & network pushes all after he started to ask if I called AT&T to get a network push.

I actually took screenshots of the issue, which is another thing you should do to show the issues.

To take a screen shot, hit the sleep + home at the same time real quick and you should see a flash on the screen. You can then find the screen shot in your Camera Roll.